Media Messages and Audiences
Week 4 Conscious Practitioner
Dr Digdem Sezen
digdem.sezen@uca.ac.uk
Week 4 Conscious Practitioner
Dr Digdem Sezen
digdem.sezen@uca.ac.uk
What messages do your favourite games communicate, intentionally or unintentionally?
Communication is not a straight line; it’s a cultural process.
Stuart Hall
|
Reading Type |
Player Interpretation |
|
Dominant / Preferred Reading |
It’s a sharp, dark satire of modern society, a parody of greed, violence, and media culture. |
|
Negotiated Reading |
It’s fun and well-made, but its satire feels hypocritical. It critiques violence and sexism while profiting from them. |
|
Oppositional Reading |
It glorifies toxic masculinity, crime, and misogyny. There’s no real critique, just indulgence. |
|
Reading Type |
Example Player Interpretation |
Why it Matters |
|
Dominant (Preferred) Reading |
This is a powerful allegory about empathy, freedom, and civil rights. The game makes us reflect on prejudice and morality. |
Accepts the intended liberal-humanist message encoded by the developers. |
|
Negotiated Reading |
The story is moving and thought-provoking, but it simplifies real oppression and racial struggles. Androids aren’t humans, so the metaphor only goes so far. |
Acknowledges the intention but questions how well the metaphor works. |
|
Oppositional Reading |
This is a tone-deaf appropriation of the Black civil rights movement, using robot suffering to mimic real trauma. It commodifies activism. |
Rejects the encoded meaning and critiques the politics of representation and authorship. |
Animal Crossing (Nintendo, 2019): Decoded meaning
|
Reading Type |
Player Interpretation |
Example Insights |
|
Dominant Reading |
This is a relaxing, positive escape, a world of kindness and creativity. |
Accepts the encoded fantasy of balance, harmony, and productivity. |
|
Negotiated Reading |
It’s peaceful, but it still pressures me to grind for rewards and debt repayments. |
Enjoys the calm tone but recognises underlying capitalist or consumerist logic. |
|
Oppositional Reading |
This is capitalist propaganda disguised as cuteness, a simulation of debt, consumption, and endless labour. |
Rejects the message of wholesome work, viewing it as ideology wrapped in comfort aesthetics. |
Everyone gathered around the same television, at the same time. Programming was scheduled and flowed in a fixed order. The medium encouraged simultaneous viewing, shared reactions, and conversation.
